May 2017 – Center for Intercultural Dialogue

CFP Media, Democracy & Political Power

Publication Opportunities Call For Papers
Revista Comunicação & Sociedade [Communication & Society Journal] Special Issue “Media, democracy and political power: between the right to communication and hegemony in public agenda” V. 41, n. 3 (Sept-Dec 2017), to be published in December, 2017
Dossier Editor: Dr. Magali do Nascimento Cunha
Full paper submissions due: July 30, 2017

The close relationship between media, democracy and political power in the second decade of the 21st century is the object of this thematic volume of Communication & Society. This proposal is motivated by the observation of the movements that shake up contemporary political contexts in the world and in Brazil, with significant advances in the occupation of the political sphere by conservative and ultraconservative leaders, parties and movements. These advances are represented in the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, in polarized elections in Europe and in the seizure of power in Brazil through the impeachment process of Dilma Rousseff. At the same time, popular movements, including those of social minorities, are reconfiguring in reaction to the conservative revitalization. In all these contexts it is observed that traditional media and digital media occupy a prominent place in the mediation of the processes involved, either in the reverberation of prevailing discourses or in the critical expression to them, both in alliances with powers in progress and in oppositionist divergences, in actions of support, confrontation or negotiation.

This special issue will be bilingual, in Portuguese and English.

CFP Conference in Sociolinguistics ‘Multimodal & Mediated Discourse Analysis’ (Hong Kong)

2nd HKU PhD Conference in Sociolinguistics:
Multimodal and Mediated Discourse Analysis
University of Hong Kong
28-29 September 2017

This conference aims to put Hong Kong and international postgraduate researchers into a dialogue around their current work on all aspects of Sociolinguistics and Discourse Analysis with a special focus on Multimodality and Mediation. The conference will include plenary lectures and workshops with two leading scholars in the fields of Multimodality and Mediated Discourse Analysis.

All registered participants will have their conference fees waived. All meals on the two days of the conference will be provided free of charge. The organizers cannot offer any funding towards travel or accommodation. For participants from outside of Hong Kong, a limited number of rooms at the HKU Guesthouse (Robert Black College) will be available at preferential rates on first come first served basis.

Keynote Speakers

Professor Rodney Jones, University of Reading, UK
Professor David Machin, Örebro University, Sweden

KC1 Intercultural Dialogue Translated into Romanian

Continuing translations of Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue, today I am posting KC1: Intercultural Dialogue, which I wrote and first published in English in 2014, and which Gabriel Furmuzachi has now translated into Romanian.

As always, all Key Concepts are available as free PDFs; just click on the thumbnail to download. Lists of Key Concepts organized chronologically by publication date and number, alphabetically by concept, and by languages into which they have been translated, are available, as is a page of acknowledgments with the names of all authors, translators, and reviewers.

Leeds-Hurwitz, W. (2017). Dialogul Intercultural (G. Furmuzachi, Trans.). Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue, 1. Available from: https://centerforinterculturaldialogue.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/kc1-intercultural-dialogue_romanian.pdf

If you are interested in translating one of the Key Concepts, please contact me for approval first because dozens are currently in process. As always, if there is a concept you think should be written up as one of the Key Concepts, whether in English or any other language, propose it. If you are new to CID, please provide a brief resume. This opportunity is open to masters students and above, on the assumption that some familiarity with academic conventions generally, and discussion of intercultural dialogue specifically, are useful.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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CFP Communication for Social Justice Activism

Call for Book Proposals: Communication for Social Justice Activism

Dr. Patricia S. Parker (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) and Dr. Lawrence R. Frey (University of Colorado Boulder) are pleased to announce, as editors, a new book series on “Communication and Social Justice Activism” to be published by the University of California Press.

Communication for social justice activism involves people (including communication researchers, teachers, students, organizational employees, and community members) using communication theories, methods, pedagogies, and other practices to work with and for oppressed, marginalized, and underresourced groups and communities, as well as with activist groups and organizations, to intervene into inequitable systems and make their structures and practices more just.

This book series, thus, offers a new, important, and exciting outlet for communication scholarship that promotes social justice activism in teaching communication courses and in conducting communication research. The goal is to weave social justice activism into all levels of the communication curriculum, with books in this series serving as primary and supplementary texts in undergraduate and graduate communication courses, and as indispensable resources for communication scholars engaging in social justice communication activism teaching and research.

Books Sought: The series will publish three types of books:

1. Textbooks: Briefer and less expensive than typical course textbooks, these books offer a general overview of a topic that is taught as an undergraduate communication course, through a communication for social justice activism lens.

2. Course Content-focused Books: These books focus on particularly important content that is covered in undergraduate and graduate communication courses, serving as supplemental books for those courses.

3. Case Studies: These books examine specific, extended examples of original communication activism studies, in which researchers intervene, working with others, have used communication theories, methods, pedagogies, and other practices to promote social justice.

U Essex Job Ad: Media & Social Theory

Lecturer in Media and Social Theory
University of Essex – Department of Sociology
Closes: June 6, 2017

The Department of Sociology is one of the founding departments of the University of Essex and offers a stimulating and supportive environment for the pursuit of teaching and research. It is currently ranked 27 in the QS World Rankings and has been in the top ten for the quality of its research in all the research assessment exercises since 1986.

We are seeking to appoint a Lecturer in Media and Social Theory to strengthen our research and teaching in this field. Applicants are invited who can bridge core sociological and social theory and more recent currents in media and cultural theory. Applicants will contribute to teaching across our core sociological analysis modules and to the degree BA Communications and Digital Media. They should have expertise in a substantive field of research and a publication plan for future REF programmes.

As a lecturer in Media and Social Theory, you will require a PHD in Sociology or an allied field and have experience in teaching at Undergraduate level in this field.

The candidate will also have high quality research and publication skills, the capacity to design, deliver and assess undergraduate and postgraduate modules in Digital Media/ Culture and Sociology and be able to engage and motivate students.

At the University of Essex internationalism is central to who we are and what we do. We are committed to being a cosmopolitan, internationally-oriented university that is welcoming to staff and students from all countries and a university where you can find the world in one place.

CFP Linguistic Diversity & Asylum (Germany)

Linguistic diversity and asylum
October 26-27, 2017

Conference at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Department of Socio-Cultural Diversity, Göttingen, Germany

The exponential increase of refugees arriving in Europe
has added a new linguistic dimension to the social diversity
within European societies. The workshop engages with
how and where linguistic diversity is observable in the
asylum process and how institutions react in situations of
non-deniable and more and more complex linguistic diversity.

Amritsar: Conflict & Harmony

Amritsar: Conflict and Harmony
Guest Post by Linda J. de Wit

Amritsar is a medium-sized city in India serving as a tourist destination for two main reasons. First, it is the location of the holiest temple of the Sikh religion; second, it is the closest city to the Wagah border crossing with Pakistan where thousands of visitors assemble to watch the ceremonial closing of the gates every day.

The city and its surroundings have great significance in the history of Partition and the border ceremony is probably the most tangible example of the persistent tensions between the countries separated in 1947. In a remarkably aligned military drill, soldiers on both sides parade up and down, accompanied by hostile looks, aggressive hand gestures, and kicks so high they are basically standing splits. The audiences cheer every move in what almost looks like a dance-off.

When the two flags simultaneously are lowered, a single brief handshake takes place before the border gates are violently slammed shut in the neighbor’s face. The crowds applaud and shout patriotic slogans. The ceremony is a joyful event with music and dancing, having the atmosphere of a sports game. The souvenirs on the Indian side signal that the subject matter is more serious, as they boast about the “world’s largest border guarding force.” Most visitors have probably never been, and will never go, to the other side.

Back in the city, one can visit the Partition museum, the only one in the country. It recounts how the division of British India along religious lines caused millions of people to leave their homes. Amritsar’s train station saw refugees leaving in both directions, as well as packed trains arriving with no one alive, attacked because they were Muslims or Hindus.

A stone’s throw from the museum is a walled garden, Jallianwala Bagh, where a massacre took place by British forces among peaceful protesters in 1919. Gatherings had been forbidden and, without providing a warning, soldiers opened fire on the crowd for ten minutes, killing hundreds. This was one of the events that nourished the independence movement in India.

The city’s main attraction, however, is a different place, drawing more visitors than the Taj Mahal: the Golden Temple. It is the spiritual center of Sikhism because it is where the original version of the religion’s holy book lies. The Temple’s four doors symbolize that people from east, west, north and south can enter the place, irrespective of caste, creed and sex: Sikhism’s fundamental values include absolute equality and the unity of humankind.

The free information booklets distributed around the Temple describe how Sikhism holds that, in essence, all religions are an expression of the same fundamental truth. The founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak (1469-1539), strove to bring Hindus and Muslims together: “his life and teachings were a symbol of the harmony between the two communities.”^[1]

The peaceful ambience of the Temple complex is a heartening change from the city’s gloomier connotations. Tears may spring to the visitor’s eyes, due to mountains of onions being peeled by countless volunteers: every Sikh place of worship has a common kitchen distributing free meals. At the Golden Temple some 75,000 people per day share the same food, sitting together in a row on the floor.

For the moment, such harmony is, on a larger scale, still something to strive for. Last December, the Heart of Asia peace summit took place in Amritsar, but India and Pakistan did not successfully initiate a dialogue process.^[2]

The significance of Amritsar in history, as in the present, remains ambiguous. The city is the backdrop of some of the most intense examples of failing intercultural and interreligious dialogue and the consequences thereof. At the same time, as the capital of Sikhism, the city is imbued with the inclusive philosophy of tolerance and unity. For all its contrasts, Amritsar ultimately is a symbol of hope of a better future.

^[1] Dr. Sir Radhkrishnan, as cited in: Singh Shan, H. (2015). Sri Guru Granth Sahib. The Unique and Universal Scripture. Dharam Parchar Committee.

^[2] http://www.atimes.com/inod-pak-dialogue-process-fails-launch-amritsar/

Download the entire essay as a PDF.

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KC3: Intercultural Competence Translated into Romanian

Continuing translations of Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue, today I am posting KC3: Intercultural Competence, first published in English in 2014 by Lily A. Arasaratnam which Gabriel Furmuzachi has now translated into Romanian.

Arasaratnam, L. A. (2017). Competenţa Interculturală (G. Furmuzachi, Trans.). Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue, 3. Available from: https://centerforinterculturaldialogue.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/kc3-intercultural-competence_romanian.pdf

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Gabriel Furmuzachi Profile

Gabriel Furmuzachi has a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Vienna (Austria).

Gabriel Furmuzachi

His academic work deals with issues such as multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism, language learning, communication and narrative identity. His present research interests gravitate around the idea of dialogue as a means of bringing cultures closer and of cosmopolitanism (both in its guise as identity and responsibility and as moral and institutional cosmopolitanism). He also has written essays about metaphors and emotions, the accommodationist use of reason in Canadian philosophy, the relationship between reason and nature, aesthetics and more.His non-academic work consists in surveying the international fine art trade (with emphasis on Eastern European art), buying and selling nineteenth and twentieth century paintings.

He is also involved in a series of projects spread on a wide cultural spectrum including, for example, Space and Place (a non-profit group based in Vienna, Austria, focused on urbanism and social interventions aiming at promoting cultural and social diversity in the city), Liternautica (a Romanian literature portal where he is part of the editorial team, encouraging young and established Romanian writers and building bridges between literary traditions) and Revista Timpul (where he is contributing with interviews and essays on various themes).

Work for CID:

Gabriel Furmuzachi wrote a guest post, Migration, Language and Dialogue, and conducted an interview: Vienna Coffeehouse Conversations: An interview with Eugene Quinn. He also translated KC1: Intercultural Dialogue, KC3: Intercultural Competence, and KC16: Migration into Romanian.

PLURAL+ 2017 Youth Video Festival

Do you have something to say about the themes of diversity, migration, social inclusion, and xenophobia? Submit videos less than 5 minutes in length to the PLURAL+ 2017 Youth Video Festival. Deadline: June 4, 2017

PLURAL+ is a joint initiative of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) with the support of a wide network of international partners.

View winning videos from past and present PLURAL+ Youth Video Festivals, chosen by an international jury and partners from thousands of submissions from around the globe.

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